


The miner who wanted to learn magic

by MarineSunrise



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Crystalization, Dark mercenaries short stories, Garnet's past, Mild Blood, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26108590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarineSunrise/pseuds/MarineSunrise
Summary: Enalyn Eldergem was a cheerful blonde elf girl, who wanted to learn magicGarnet is a quiet grown elf, master in crystal sorceryLearn how Enalyn became Garnet on this short story!





	The miner who wanted to learn magic

**Author's Note:**

> You can see here Garnet's appearance (with shorter hair than in this short story), plus the crystalized scars!  
> https://twitter.com/marinesunart/status/1298328449686343681

Enalyn woke up. She could barely see around her, she was surrounded by complete darkness. What the hell happened?  
A random memory crossed her mind before she fainted again.

  
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
“Welcome to the Eldergem family mines! Here we gather magic crystals for all your magic items! We have all shapes and sizes!”  
A blond old elf was giving some tourists a tour around the mining facilities. The young Enalyn was watching from a window how her father showed the strangers around. The young blonde girl turned to her mother, who was feeding the newborn twins.  
“Mommy, I don’t want to wait here. I want to play with Will outside”  
“Listen here, Enalyn. You were grounded for leaving the house to meet that dirty half-blooded dragon child. A lady like you shouldn’t be playing around that kind of people”  
“But mooooooooom he’s so cool! He has a scaly arm and he has even a tail!! Plus he lives on the forest and he climbs trees sooo fast!”  
“I said no. You won’t leave the house. Besides, your father has some important meeting with some people that can makes us earn more money”  
The little girl pouted and sat on the table to continue drawing “magic circles”. She was determined to be one of the best wizards in this region, so she started trying to practice drawing magic circles that she once saw in the herbalist’s magic book.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She woke up again, feeling weaker. Was she going to die? Everything hurted. Her eyes grew accustom to the darkness, but there was something wrong…

“Why can’t I see with my right eye? Why does it hurts this much?”

She tried touching it, only to find a large crystal poking from it. Scared, she tried to remove it, only managing to break it and making blood gush from the wound. She passed out from the pain again.  
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
“What are you saying, Enalyn? You don’t want to work with us? This is a family business, we would like you to work with us”  
“Father I want to become a wizard, not a simple miner!”  
“Enalyn, please, don’t make things more complicated”  
“Mother, I am NOT making things more complicated. You two just assumed I was going to be like my brothers, miners for the family, but I don’t want to be trapped here in this poor village for the rest of my life!”  
“Listen here child, you…”  
“No, **you two** listen! I am 40 years old, old enough to travel to other cities and take care of myself. I’m going to the magic academy, whether you want it or not. It’s my final decision”  
The three elves grew silent. Then, her father spoke.  
“I will only warn you. Do as you want, go to that damn school, but maybe when you realized the life you would have had here, it will no longer be here for you. Rushing to unknown territory will kill you one day”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
She woke again, crying this time.  
“You… were right… dad. I’m sorry… I… I should have listened…”  
She started feeling piercing pain, and looked down to see a fully grown crystal making a diagonal wound in her abdomen and part of the chest. The crystal was starting to grow **inside** her body.  
“Am… am I gonna die here?”  
She cursed her luck, and tried to push the crystal, only making it pierce more skin.  
“I want to go back to the mines”  
She punched the crystal hard.  
“I want to go back and apologize to them”  
Crack started to form in the crystal, slowly.  
“I need to tell dad, mom and brothers I fucked up”  
Her knucles were bleeding.  
“Please, please, I beg you, let me get out of this. I **need** to get out of this”  
She was slowly losing force.  
“I want to see them again”  
Crack  
“I don’t want them to worry about me”  
Crack  
“I don’t want them to suffer because of me”  
Crack  
“I need see them again”  
Crack  
“I want to tell them how much I love them”  
_Crack_  
“Please…”  
_**Crack**_  
Her body gave up, and she collapsed yet again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
She tried hard. She tried so hard it hurt. But everyone told her she wouldn’t pass any class at this point. That she was not made for this.

  
_She couldn’t make the simplest spells._  
_She couldn’t draw the simplest magic circles._  
_She couldn’t remember the simplest formulaes._  
_She couldn’t comprehend the simplest arcana theories._

**She couldn’t cast magic.**

With all her dreams shattered, she collected all her belongings and walked a long path back home. She didn’t know what to say to her parents. She didn’t know what face to look at them. Would they laugh? Would they tell her too that she is a failure? Would they say that they were right all this time? What would they brothers tell her? Would they laugh at her too?  
With too many questions in mind, she arrived at the mines. Still working, it seemed, but no one would be up this late working. She lit a lantern and entered the mines. She thought about sleeping in there, so she would have time to prepare what to say.  
She ventured deeper in the mines, still knowing the layout from when she was a child. A warm feeling of familiarity lit up her heart. Turning around the corner, she saw a weird crack in the wall.  
“Hmmm, might mark this for my parents to watch out”  
Just when she was approaching the rift, a small tremor shook the mine, making the roof and floor collapse under its weight. Enalyn fell into a large crystal pit.  
She landed on top of a pile of magic crystals. Most of her bones break from the fall, her body was pierced by the sharp crystal shards; but somehow she was still conscious and alive. And in pain, **so much pain**.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
She opened her eyes. How long has she been down there? Her clothes were dirty, covered in moss, as some parts of her body. But she felt better, a lot better. There was no crystal now, so she could get up from the ground.  
But then, she noticed it. On her left shoulder, on her right upper arm and across her torso there was chucks of crystals attached to her body. It seemed like cold skin, melded perfectly to resemble the lost parts of her body.  
“Oh no… they can’t see me like this”  
Then she took a look at her hair. Instead of that wheat blonde she had, her hair now was a bright fuchsia that reached past her feet.  
“W-wait no. Who splashed me with a growing hair potion? Ha… haha this is not funny at all…”  
She looked around and saw a small waterfall, vines and moss crawling up the walls. The pit turned into a small cave with the past of the time. It would have needed a lot of time to transform, and that fact was making Enalyn getting more and more nervous. She rushed through the cave tunnel, trying to reach the entrance.  
She ran and ran, trying to find her family’s mining outpost. She panicked when she arrived, and hid between some bushes. Two blonde elves were showing the facility to some rich merchants. The taller one spoke out.  
“Please, welcome to the Eldergem family mines! Here we gather magic crystals for all your magic items! We have all shapes and sizes!”  
“We discovered a new type of crystals to fuel your creations, but we need more resources to gather it” The smaller one cleared its throat “I hope it catches your attention, my brother Edaniel and I think it will be a very good investment”  
“Well said, Ridanel! Please follow me, sirs”  
She was glad to see them. But she feared how much they grown. It looked like at least 300 years has passed. Her brothers looked old, too old. She sneaked and followed them to the entrance of the mines.  
“Here lies the memorial of the founders of the mining outpost, and the crystal monolith is a monument in honor of our deceased parents and older sister. May them be well on heaven”

Deceased? Oh. They thought she died. Mom and dad appear to be also dead. Her brothers seemed to have moved on.

What place did she belong now?

She picked a blanket that covered some coal supply pile and ventured deep in the forest. She will become a wanderer until the day when she can find a place to call home again.  
She isn’t the same person anymore. She felt different. Enalyn Eldergem died a long time ago in that cave, so she will become Garnet, the Wanderer.


End file.
